Campers, forestry personnel, householders and many other persons often need tools for performing any of a variety of operations such as chopping wood, hammering, digging, raking, hoeing, sawing and the like. It can be costly and cumbersome to obtain, store and transport a collection of tools each of which is useful only for a particular one of such operations.
My prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,245,094, issued Apr. 12, 1966; 3,561,023, issued Feb. 9, 1971 and 3,824,641, issued Jul. 23, 1974, disclose a type of outdoor tool that greatly alleviates the above discussed problem. The tool is basically an ax but enables attachment of any of a variety of auxiliary implements to the ax head. Such implements, which may for example include a spade blade, pick point, hoe blade or combination hoe and rake blade, can be detached from the tool and be replaced with a differing one of the implements as the need arises. Such a tool, together with a kit of the auxiliary implements, is much more compact and easier to store and transport than a collection of traditional tools for performing similar operations.
The auxiliary implements can be provided with tapered tangs which simply wedge into a conforming socket on the ax head as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,094 but a more positive attachment to the ax head as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,561,023 and 3,824,641 is preferable in order to prevent inadvertent separation of the implement from the ax head.
The positive implement fastening arrangements of the above identified patents require thumbscrews which engage in small clamping or wedging components that can be separated from the ax head and the auxiliary implement. It would be advantageous to provide for secure positive fastening of the implements to the ax head without the use of small separable components that can easily be mislaid or be overlooked when the tool elements are being gathered together or while one implement is being replaced with another.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.